Workers fight closure of Bronx Stella Doro plant

The union that represents 136 workers at the Stella Doro Biscuit Co. has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to stop the companys planned shutdown of a Bronx factory.

In a second move, the union petitioned the NLRB to ask a federal judge to issue an injunction that would prevent private equity firm Brynwood Partners, which manages the investment fund that owns the company, from closing the factory. It also asked the city to intervene to keep the factory open, or to recover money in the form of tax abatements that the plant has received.

The workers had been on strike since walking off their jobs last August. Late last month a judge ruled that the company had violated labor law and ordered the workers reinstated with back pay to May 6. The workers returned to their jobs last week, but on the same day, Stella Doro announced it was shutting the factory in three months because the union had failed to make any meaningful concessions that would stop the company from losing money.

The union is also seeking to reopen negotiations over both the expired collective bargaining agreement and Stella Doro officials decision to close the plant and relocate production.

The company cannot simply ignore the decision of a federal administrative law judge and it cannot punish the workers at Stella Doro for exercising their rights under law, said Joyce Alston, president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 50.

Calls to Stella Doro, Brynwood and their attorney, Mark Jacoby, were not returned. The company released a statement last week charging union leadership with failing to grasp that any business that cannot operate profitably must seek changes that will enable it to do so.

Elbert Tellem, the assistant regional director of the NLRB, confirmed the unions filings, but would not otherwise comment.

Labor lawyer Michael Weber, a senior partner at Littler Mendelson, said the workers attempt to link the closing to union activity was not surprising. They could argue it, but if the company can show legitimate business reasons for their actions, they have every right to go where they can operate profitably, he said.

The former regional director of the NLRB, Dan Sullivan, said that because Stella Doro indicated that it was not going out of business completely and would continue to produce products after the shutdown, the union may have a case. They have to prove the reason for closing was union activity and not, as the employer says, economic motivation, he said.

He said the union would likely point to the timing of the plant closing announcement, which occurred soon after the judges decision, and that the company would continue to stand by the position that it was losing money.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the mayor appointed a mediator in April, but that the two sides were unable to resolve their differences. He said the tax abatements Stella Doro received are available to any business that builds or renovates a facility and that theyre not contingent on creating or maintaining jobs.

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